WHO Urges Rollout Of First Long-Acting HIV Prevention Jab
Injectable lenacapavir – LEN, for short – is a highly effective, long-acting antiretroviral alternative to daily oral pills and other shorter-acting options, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
'While an HIV vaccine remains elusive, lenacapavir is the next best thing: a long-acting antiretroviral shown in trials to prevent almost all HIV infections among those at risk,' said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General.
Test kit advantage
WHO's support for the injectable drug is significant because HIV prevention efforts are stagnating around the world.
To make it easier for people to receive the injection close to home, the UN agency also recommends the use of rapid testing kits for the disease, as opposed to 'complex, costly procedures'.
According to the agency, 1.3 million people contracted HIV in 2024; people most impacted were sex workers, men who have sex with men, transgender people, people who inject drugs, people in prisons, and children and teens.
'WHO is committed to working with countries and partners to ensure this innovation reaches communities as quickly and safely as possible,' insisted Tedros, in comments during the 13th International AIDS Society Conference (IAS 2025) on HIV Science, in Kigali, Rwanda.
The recommendation for LEN is also in line with the US health authorities which approved it in June.
Call for implementation
Although access to the LEN injection remains limited outside clinical trials today, WHO urged governments, donors and partners to incorporate LEN 'immediately' within national combination HIV-prevention programmes.
Other WHO-supported HIV-prevention options include daily oral tablets, injectable cabotegravir – which is injected once every two months – and the dapivirine vaginal ring, as part of a growing number of tools to end the HIV epidemic.
Funding dilemma
Amid massive funding cuts to the global effort to end HIV-AIDS – including the leading US Government programme launched in 2003, PEPFAR, focusing on combating the disease in Africa - WHO also issued new operational guidance on how to sustain priority HIV services.
'We have the tools and the knowledge to end AIDS…what we need now is bold implementation of these recommendations, grounded in equity and powered by communities,' said DrMeg Doherty, Director of WHO's Department of Global HIV, Hepatitis and STI Programmes and incoming Director of Science, Research, Evidence and Quality for Health.
HIV remains a major global public health issue.
By the end of 2024, an estimated 40.8 million people were living with HIV with an estimated 65 per cent in Africa. Approximately 630,000 people died from HIV-related causes globally, and an estimated 1.3 million people acquired HIV, including 120,000 children.
More positively, access to HIV drugs continues to expand, with 31.6 million people receiving treatment in 2024, up from 30.3 million a year earlier. Without anti-retroviral medication, the HIV virus attacks the body's immune system, leading ultimately to the onset of AIDS.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
United Nations Welcomes New Zealand's NZD 4 Million Commitment To Fiji's HIV
Suva, Fiji – The United Nations in Fiji welcomes and commends the Government of New Zealand for its significant contribution of NZD 4 million to support the Government of Fiji's urgent response to the HIV outbreak. This catalytic funding reaffirms New Zealand's leadership and long-standing commitment to public health, equity, and regional solidarity in the Pacific. The UN Resident Coordinator for Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu, Mr Dirk Wagener noted the timeliness considering the rapidly growing cases in the country. 'The Pacific is facing a turning point in its HIV response. I sincerely thank the Government of New Zealand for its decisive and compassionate leadership. This funding is more than a contribution—it is a signal of shared responsibility and a boost to regional health security.' 'The United Nations remains firmly committed to supporting the Government of Fiji in averting further transmission and in saving lives. Our collective response must be fast, focused, and grounded in human rights, equity, and dignity. ' New Zealand's NZD 4 million contribution will strengthen efforts already underway, including: expansion of community-based HIV testing and treatment services; roll-out of harm reduction programmes, including the introduction of needle and syringe programmes for people who inject drugs; implementation of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) for populations at substantial risk of HIV infection; and strengthening peer-led and community-based support models to improve treatment literacy and adherence while reducing stigma. This announcement builds on the momentum generated at the Development Partners' Roundtable on Fiji's HIV Outbreak Response convened in June 2025 by Ministry of Health and Medical Services and the United Nations. The Roundtable brought together government and key bilateral and multilateral partners—including New Zealand, Australia, the United States, the European Union, Germany, France, Spain , Canada China, Japan, Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia as well as UN agencies—to align strategic support and coordinate resources in response to what is now the world's fastest-growing HIV epidemic. As detailed in the 2025 UNAIDS Global AIDS Update, since 2010, Fiji has recorded a 3091% increase in estimated new HIV infections. In 2014, fewer than 500 people were living with HIV. By 2024, this number had surged to an estimated 5,900 (range: 4,500– 8,900). Shockingly, only 36% of people living with HIV in Fiji were aware of their status last year, and just 24% were receiving treatment. In response to these alarming figures, the Government of Fiji declared a national HIV outbreak in January 2025. The United Nations continues to support the response through the Joint UN Team on HIV, which is led by UNAIDS and includes the active engagement of UNICEF, UNFPA, WHO, UNDP, UN Women, ILO and UNODC. These UN agencies are also playing a lead role in the National HIV Outbreak and Cluster Response Taskforce, as well as in technical working groups on prevention, treatment, diagnostics, data, and community engagement—ensuring evidence-based and community-driven responses are delivered in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. The United Nations calls on all partners to sustain momentum and ensure the HIV outbreak response is fully resourced and community led. This includes continued investment in Prevention scale-up, integrated service delivery, and the long-term sustainability of the national HIV programme.
Scoop
2 days ago
- Scoop
‘Famine Silently Begins To Unfold' In Gaza, UNRWA Chief Says
24 July 2025 Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), said that is what one of its workers told him on Thursday morning. This sobering comment comes amidst increasingly severe malnutrition for children and adults throughout the Gaza Strip. 'When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food and care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold,' Mr. Lazzarini said in a tweet. Bombs are not the only thing that kills Gaza has faced relentless bombardment for almost three years, but Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said at a briefing on Wednesday that it is not just the bombs which are killing Palestinians. Starvation is 'another killer'. Reportedly at least 100 people have died from hunger, and WHO has documented at least 21 cases of children under the age of five dying from malnutrition. Additionally, Mr. Lazzarini said one in five children in Gaza City is malnourished, a number increasing every day that unhindered humanitarian aid is denied. He said these children urgently need treatment, but supplies remain low. Between early March and mid-May – 80 consecutive days – no aid was allowed into the Gaza Strip, pushing the population to the brink of famine. While minimal aid has since entered, Tedros emphasised that it is not enough. 'Food deliveries have resumed intermittently, but remain far below what is needed for the survival of the population,' he said. Safe havens are no longer safe Tedros reported that between 27 May and 21 July, over 1,000 people in Gaza have been killed while trying to access food. Many of these have died in or around sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an American-run and Israeli-backed aid distribution organization which the UN has repeatedly said violates well-established principles of international humanitarian law. 'Parents tell us their children cry themselves to sleep from hunger. Food distribution sites have become places of violence,' Tedros said. In addition to risking their lives when seeking out desperately needed humanitarian assistance, hospitals – which have been systematically targeted, according to UNFPA – are no longer safe havens. 'Hospitals, which are supposed to be safe havens, have regularly been attacked, and many are no longer functioning,' Tedros said. He recalled that on Monday, a WHO staff residence, a humanitarian site, was attacked, with male personnel being stripped and interrogated, women and children forced to flee on foot in the midst of violence and one WHO staff member detained. 'Despite this, WHO and other UN agencies are staying in Gaza. Our commitment is firm. UN agencies must be protected while operating in conflict zones,' Tedros said. Frontline workers face hunger In addition to the Palestinians in Gaza who are 'emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying', aid workers are also feeling the effects of the sustained lack of supplies. Most UNRWA workers are surviving on a meagre bowl of lentils each day, Mr. Lazzarini said, leading many of them to faint from hunger at work. 'When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing,' he said. Some parents are too hungry to care for their children, and even those who do reach clinics for treatment are often too tired to follow the advice provided. Mr. Lazzarini noted that UNRWA alone has 6,000 trucks of desperately needed food and medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt. He called for this and other aid to be immediately let through. 'Families are no longer coping. They are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened,' he said. 'Allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza.'
Scoop
3 days ago
- Scoop
‘Catastrophic Birth Outcomes' In Gaza Threaten A Whole Generation, Warns UN Agency
23 July 2025 In the first half of 2025, only 17,000 births were recorded, according to Gazan health authorities, representing a 41 per cent decline in Gaza's birth rate over the past three years, the agency said. 'Every mother and child deserves the right to a safe birth and a healthy start to life. What we are witnessing is a systematic denial of these fundamental rights, pushing an entire generation to the brink,' said Laila Baker, regional director for the Arab States at UNFPA. These conditions come amidst an ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza, which has displaced the entire Palestinian population at least once and reportedly killed over 60,000. Something treatable becomes a death sentence UNFPA said that the systematic targeting of a healthcare system already on the brink of collapse is creating an untenable situation for mothers and newborns. The majority of hospitals and health facilities have been damaged or destroyed, with medicine stocks running severely low and medical equipment severely damaged. Ambulance services are also facing severe impediments, meaning that women giving birth face extreme challenges accessing healthcare. In this context, treatable complications during birth become death sentences. 'The scale of suffering for new mothers and their babies in Gaza is beyond comprehension,' Ms. Baker said. Preventable loss UNFPA said it has 170 trucks at the border between Israel and Gaza – and has since March 2025 – which contain life-saving supplies such as ultrasound machines, portable incubators and maternity kits. However, they have not been allowed into the Strip. The agency urged Israel to allow 'unimpeded, sustained and demilitarised' humanitarian aid into Gaza including fuel, medical supplies and nutritional support. 'Every moment lost means more preventable loss of life and unimaginable suffering for the most vulnerable,' it said. Aid operations under severe strain Meanwhile, in New York, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said that the Organization's humanitarian operations in Gaza are 'currently under severe strain', with aid workers facing serious security risks, unreliable crossings and routine delays or blockages of supplies. He said the UN 'stands ready to seize the opportunity of a ceasefire to significantly scale up humanitarian operations across the Gaza Strip as we did during the previous ceasefire.' 'Our plans are ready, and they are finalised.' However, this depends on Israel enabling safe, unimpeded aid delivery: opening all crossings, restoring key supply routes, allowing in fuel and essential equipment and ensuring the safety of humanitarian staff and civilian movement. Needs are worsening During a visit to Gaza, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov met with aid agencies in Deir Al-Balah and praised workers operating 'under extraordinarily difficult and dangerous conditions'. Needs are worsening: 109 relief organizations warn mass starvation is spreading, aid workers are fainting from hunger, child malnutrition is surging and hospitals are overwhelmed and closing for lack of fuel. 'The amount of aid that has been entering Gaza is only a trickle compared to the immense needs. Above all, we need a ceasefire to put an end to this devastating situation,' Mr. Dujarric said.
